2gig on one stick..

[jjblanche]

Is there any detriment to running DDR2 with only one stick? I bought 2x2 gig G.Skill for Vista x64, and ran into boot errors when going past 2.8GHz on the CPU. Removing one stick solved the problem. It is now running with 2 gig, but those two gigs are only on one stick (so, I'm only running one DIMM). Is this kosher? Vista picks it up as being 2 gigs, no problem.

 

[tlmck]

Is your motherboard manual specific about running a single dimm in a certain socket? Some are.

Also, is that ram compatible with your MB? Gskill is not on very many approved lists. It may be fine at stock speed, but have issues in OC.

If all of the above is kosher, you may need to loosen the ram timings, and/or adjust the ram voltage.

Lastly, over clocking is not an exact science. Your specific MB/CPU may not be capable of over 2.8ghz.

 

[jjblanche]

I'm at 3.6 GHz now with 2 gig. I don't plan on overclocking the RAM. Like I said, it boots fine, OCs fine, and is now Prime95ing fine. I'm running small FFTs overnight. I'll run large and blend for 8 hours each tomorrow. Assuming they both clear, I won't worry about it too much.

EDIT: My mobo manual says that one stick can be installed, no problem, but I can't use dual channel mode.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Didn't you over volt it any ? That may have been the problem. Not enough juice. You may need to increase the voltage on the processor also.

 

[jjblanche]

The RAM was waaayyy UNDERCLOCKED at 2.9GHz. Even still, I gave it a voltage boost, and still no dice. Something, whether it be hardware or software, just did not want me to go past 2.8 GHz on the CPU with 4 gigs of RAM.

Like I said, I removed the one stick, and am OCing just fine. Currently at 3.6 GHz, like I mentioned. As of this moment, Prime95 has been running small FFTs for 8 hours exactly, and has yet to show an error. I doubt I'll need to do anymore tweaking. Just incase, though, I'm going to let small FFTs run for at least two more hours, then run large FFTs for at least 8, and blend for another 8.

Overall, I'm glad I was able to get up to 3.6 GHz. Running the RAM in dual channel may have netted me a maximum of 10% more overall performance, but I think the increase in the CPU will more than make up for that. I ran 3dMark06 with my former settings (2.8GHz and 4gig), and got 12865. I'll run it with my new settings and see what I pull.